1. Field of the Description
The present description relates, in general, to providing amusement park rides that provide high throughput and high daily capacities. More particularly, the present description relates to a ride system (or ride, ride apparatus, or the like) to provide a new and unique omnimover-type ride to achieve a ride experience with increased immersion and dynamic variability while preserving or even improving upon the benefits of prior omnimover rides.
2. Relevant Background
Amusement and theme parks continue to be popular worldwide with hundreds of millions of people visiting the parks each year. Historically, park operators provided walk-through attractions that presented artwork, music/soundtracks, and special effects with museum, haunted house, movie and book-based, other themes. These attractions were popular with many visitors of the parks, but park operators had difficulty increasing the daily capacity of such attractions because many visitors or attraction participants would linger in various portions of the attraction or even reverse direction in an attempt to visit prior portions of the attraction. As a result, walk-through attractions have generally been replaced by attractions in which the visitors (or passengers) ride in vehicles along a track or path through the attraction.
With the goal of providing higher ride or attraction capacity with a simple and reliable system in mind, omnimover rides have been utilized in many theme parks. An omnimover is a ride system that has been developed to provide an experience that is similar to a walk-through experience or ride-through tour as it moves guests at speeds similar to walking speed such as less than about 2 feet per second. The omnimover is a ride system used for theme park attractions such as haunted houses or movie-based theme attractions in which two, three, or more passengers sit in a vehicle that is towed or moved along a track. The omnimover ride system includes a large number of such vehicles that seat 2 to 4 passengers and are each attached or linked into a continuous loop or chain. The vehicle chain moves along a track, with the track typically hidden beneath a floor.
The chain of vehicles is kept in continuous and predictable motion, typically at a constant speed, throughout the entire course of the attraction such as along an irregular path to move through the rooms of a house or set of a show or attraction. High throughput or increased daily capacity is achieved because the vehicle chain has very closely spaced vehicles that move continuously, with riders loading and unloading while the vehicles are in motion. Standard loading and unloading occur at designated locations along the ride path from either a normal floor or from a moving walkway adjacent to the vehicle path.
The omnimover ride system continues to provide a popular platform for rides in many amusement parks as the omnimover ride system effectively delivers high capacity with a simple mechanical drive and control system. One consideration, though, with the use of omnimover ride systems is that due to the constant speed and limited vehicle movements the ride experience is relatively predictable and provides a similar experience regardless of the show. Hence, there remains a need for a ride system that provides the high capacity or passenger throughput and the simple mechanism of a conventional omnimover ride but that also provides a new, unique, fun, exciting, and unpredictable ride experience. Preferably, such a ride system would increase immersion into the ride experience and enhance variability while preserving the benefits of conventional omnimover rides including high capacity, a continuous chain of vehicles, and a simple and/or well-known propulsion and control system for moving the vehicle chain.